J.D. Vance's Awkward Donut Shop Visit

About

J.D. Vance's Awkward Donut Shop Visit refers to a video of Donald Trump's vice presidential pick J.D. Vance visiting Holt's Sweet Shop, a donut shop in Valdosta, Georgia, where the workers appeared unwilling to be filmed and disinterested in his 2024 campaign stop. Vance was criticized by many online for the C-SPAN segment in late August 2024 after he asked the donut shop employees to put "whatever makes sense" into a box of donuts, with some internet users noting his choppy-looking haircut that was subsequently featured in memes.

Origin

On August 22nd, 2024, C-SPAN aired a segment showing Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance visiting Holt's Sweet Shop in Valdosta, Georgia. The video shows Vance entering the shop with his camera crew and attempting to make small talk with the workers there. One of the workers asks not to be filmed while she and her coworker both give short, uninterested answers to Vance, who introduces himself as a VP candidate only to be told, "Ok."

X^[1] / Twitter user @HowardMortman was one of the first to repost the clip, gathering over 800 likes on an August 22nd post to X (seen below).

The X^[2] account @MeidasTouch was the first to repost the clip to viral effect, gathering over 32,000 likes on a post titled, "JD Vance had a very awkward visit to a donut shop in Georgia earlier. Trust us, it’s worse than you even think."

A transcript of the video is shown below.

Vance: The zoo has come to town, thank you for letting us come in here.
Employee: Yes sir.
Vance: Yeah (hah).
Employee: I don't want to be on film.
Vance: Okay. Yeah. She. She. She doesn't wanna be on film guys so just cut her out of anything. Appreciate that ma'am. Um. I'm J.D. Vance, I'm running for Vice President. Good to see you.
Employee: Okay.

Vance: How long you've been working here?
Employee: I've been here since the beginning of July.
Vance: Okay.
Employee: Of this year.
Vance: Okay, good. How about you sir?
Employee 2: Uhh almost two years.
Vance: Okay, good.

Vance: Just everything, I mean a lot of glazed here, some sprinkles stuff, some of these cinnamon rolls. Just, whatever makes sense.

Vance: How long has this place been around?
Employee 3: For about four years.
Vance: Four years. How long have you been here?
Employee 3: Little over six months.
Vance: Okay, good.

Spread

The video was reposted to Reddit's^[4] /r/interestingasfuck subreddit on August 22nd, 2024, where it gathered over 48,000 upvotes and 9,600 comments in a day (seen below).

As the political stunt spread, various X users criticized Vance and his campaign team for what was perceived as a poorly planned media segment.

For example, on August 22nd, X^[3] user @conorjrogers listed the kind of advance work his team could have done to make the segment go smoother, including actually canvassing ahead to see if the donut shop workers were comfortable being filmed and adding actual Vance supporters to fill out dead air. The post (seen below) received over 62,000 likes and 740 replies in a day.

Also on August 22nd, 2024, X user @hushednolonger posted a close-up of the back of Vance's head as seen in the video, showing a choppy haircut showing a tuft of hair lifting off the crown of his head. The post was quoted by X user^[5] FredTaming, who wrote, "barber: would you like to see the back? / jd vance: no / barber: are you sure? its pretty funny." The post gathered over 38,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Later on August 22nd, the Twitter Menswear Guy quoted the clip of Vance, joking about him asking for a box of whatever donuts "make sense." The post gathered over 22,000 likes in a day (seen below).^[6]

Search Interest

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External References